Lake Kariba Receives Significant Water Inflow

Inflows into Lake Kariba from the Zambezi River have increased considerably over the past several weeks, a development that will allow for improved power generation and ease power cuts.

According to the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which administers the Zambezi River and Kariba Dam, water flow at two gauge stations on the Zambezi indicated significant improvement in January and the first week of February. ZRA said in a statement:

Throughout this week of February, the Zambezi River flow at Victoria Falls has continued to rise quite steadily above last year’s flows during the same period by 25 per cent. However, this is still below the long term average by 29 per cent.

The flow in the Zambezi River at Chavuma shot up by 73 cubic meters per second between the 5th and 6th of February, indicating intense runoff on the Zambezi headwaters. The flow is still soaring above the long term average by 41 per cent and last year’s flows by 189 per cent.

Lake Kariba has a capacity of 186,6 billion cubic meters when full (486 meters) with only the upper later of 65 billion cubic meters being available for power generation (live water).

In January last year, the lake received 1.97 billion cubic meters of water due to a severe drought. In January this year, it received 3.15 billion cubic meters.

More: The Herald